COVID-19 Primary Care bulletin

24 April 2020

COVID-19: today's round-up for primary care

Dear primary care colleagues,

8 May Bank Holiday Opening

While COVID-19 infections are anticipated to be plateauing, it may not feel any different for the many areas of our country managing the increased care needs of our population and impact on staff. General practice and community pharmacy opening on the two Easter bank holidays had a positive impact on the wider health and social care system where it was needed most. Thank you for this.

However, we know demand is variable across the country and with more notice local primary care capacity could have been better matched in some areas. We are reviewing the data on activity as it becomes available, but we wanted to confirm now our expectations for opening on the next bank holiday, Friday 8 May.

Our key messages for you are to plan for: 

• GP Practices opening but agreeing with their CCG in advance if that level of the service is needed and the staff cover required. Network level cover may be agreed as an alternative in view of anticipated demand.
• Planned bank holiday cover (OOH/IUC/EA) to be adjusted as needed in response to GP practice opening.
• All community pharmacy open 2-5pm but with any exceptions agreed in advance with NHSEI regional teams.
• Planned community pharmacy and urgent dental care bank holiday cover to proceed unless otherwise agreed with NHSEI regional team.

Please use your experience of the Easter bank holidays to ensure you have the right level of cover needed for your area.

We will confirm the arrangements in more detail early next week.

Nikki and Ed

General practice 

Better information sharing for doctors and nurses to help patients during COVID-19

To help the NHS to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHSX and NHS Digital are improving the access that doctors, nurses and other authorised health and care professionals have to medical records and information, so that they can more safely treat and advise patients who are not attending their usual GP practice or who have called NHS 111 or who are attending hospital or other healthcare settings to receive direct care. Read more about the temporary changes being made to GP Connect and to the Summary Care Record to enable this.

Remote working support for social prescribing link workers

Social Prescribing link workers (SPLWs) are an integral part of the general practice response to covid-19. To provide effective support to the shielded and most vulnerable patients they must have access to remote working equipment and systems in the same way as other MDT members (specified in Annex A: 27 March letter to GPs). 

All PCN-funded SPLWs, whether employed by the PCN or the VCSE sector, must:

• be set up with an NHSMail account
• have equipment to work remotely (laptop, phone, VPN token)
• have access to GP IT Systems and smart cards so they can access patient notes and record referrals. 
• have access to the Video Consultation software available in almost all general practices.

Guidance sets out how CCGs and their IT delivery partners should support practices with options for remote working and NHSX has provided guidance on information governance during COVID-19.

PCNs should be liaising with their CCG for SPLW equipment, and if unable to meet these requirements should escalate to their regional head of digital technology. 

For queries regarding Social Prescribing, email england.socialprescribing@nhs.net.

Community pharmacy

Patient facing information for pharmacies

We have produced new public-facing digital posters for pharmacies to use on social media and in-pharmacy screens with the following messages:

• Don’t enter your local pharmacy if you or anyone you live with has coronavirus symptoms
• There’s no need to order extra medicines
• Pharmacies are having to make changes to allow them to stay open during the pandemic.

These can be downloaded here and will also be used on our social media and shared with stakeholders for use on their channels as well.

We have also updated the following nhs.uk pages to reflect feedback from community pharmacy in light of the coronavirus pandemic:

• How to order repeat prescriptions online
• What to expect from your pharmacy team
• How to get medical help from home

We will be launching a public facing PR campaign in early May.

Change to shielded patient wording in SCR

Further to the successful implementation of the Shielded Patient Flag for community pharmacy (accessible via the SCR application and SCR 1-click solutions) access is now being extended to all users of the SCR application to support access for healthcare professionals in other settings, including hospitals and out of hours services.

As a result of this extended access the wording of the alert has been amended to the following: “This person has been advised to consider shielding. This information may support you to manage this patient but should not be used in isolation as an assessment of risk. Patient management decisions should always be made drawing on the widest range of information sources.”

Dentistry 

The most recent guidance letter and standard operating procedure for oral health professionals is available on our website.

Optometry

The most recent guidance letter for optical staff is available on our website.

Additional information

Public Health England guidance for care homes

Public Health England has published guidance for those working in care homes providing information on how to work safely during this period of sustained transmission of Covid-19. It includes a flowchart for care workers providing care to residents to identify whether there is a need for personal protective equipment (PPE); PPE recommendations for care home staff; frequently asked questions on the use of PPE in care homes; and examples to help identify the correct use of PPE when undertaking activities that require physical contact or activities which do not require physical contact but are carried out in close proximity to residents.

COVID-19 Homeless Health webinar: Shropshire’s partnership approach to supporting rough sleepers 

A homeless health webinar will take place on Thursday 7 May, at 11am, featuring expert speakers from a range of organisations in Shropshire who will share their experiences of commissioning and delivering services for rough sleepers during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Partners who have been instrumental in getting rough sleepers ‘in’, to reduce the risks associated with Covid-19, will explain their roles and how the partnership has come together to support rough sleepers. The webinar will include information on Shropshire’s approach and lessons they’ve learnt while working at pace to get everyone in. The webinar is the first of a series on this topic, you can register for the it online. 

Health and wellbeing support

Please encourage your teams to make use of the dedicated health and wellbeing support for NHS workers. This includes free access to a range of wellbeing apps and a helpline (powered by the Samaritans) which has already taken hundreds of calls. More information can be found in the NHS support page.

Dates for your diary 

Upcoming webinars for your diary

• 28 April, 12:30-1pm: giving your patients access to online services remotely 
• 30 April, 5-6pm: primary care webinar with Nikki and Ed
• 7 May, 11am: homeless health webinar

Nikki and Ed's Link of the Day

COVID-19 and Ramadan